"We had lots of chances, but the secondary chances weren't there," Bridgeport coach Scott Pellerin said. "We weren't getting those second pucks earlier on in the game. Later on, we did, but we weren't able to finish."

Big defenseman Jeff Schultz opened the scoring with 9:15 left in regulation; he'd gone 60 NHL and AHL regular-season games since his last goal, Feb. 13, 2012.

Tanner Pearson scored on another four-on-four a little over two minutes later, an odd-man rush.

"I don't know how they're able to beat two guys out of their zone on almost a four-on-two rush," Pellerin said. "It's unacceptable at four-on-four."

Tyler Toffoli finished with an empty-netter, coming out of the box after Bridgeport's 11th power play.

Attendance was 2,553.

Anders Nilsson made 21 saves, a handful of big ones among them. Schultz's goal was essentially a power-play goal: A delayed penalty was coming against Bridgeport, so the Monarchs pulled Jones for an extra attacker; Schultz got lost amid the defense and rang a shot off the right post and in.

On Pearson's, his initial shot hit a defenseman and came right back to him.

Bridgeport could've used some of that luck, especially with a man advantage. Eleven tries (though some were shortened) sets a team record for most in a game without success.

Pellerin wasn't thrilled with the structure of some of the team's later power plays, but they generated chances in bunches on several advantages.

In one second-period attempt, John Persson poked a rebound away from Jones after Schultz's stick was broken. The Sound Tigers put six or seven shots toward the net on that shift.

"I thought we had good movement on the power play, a lot of shots, a lot of chances," Persson said.

Jones was up to the tough shots and the soft ones, but he probably wouldn't have gotten to one Riley Wetmore was about to launch in the left circle soon after Schultz's goal.

"I didn't see (Manchester defenseman Colin Miller) coming down the slot," Wetmore said. "I thought I had more time. He hit it at the same time as me, just redirected it."

Bridgeport gave the Monarchs seven power plays, too. They've been short-handed 20 times in three games.

"We've got to work on that," said Persson, who took two penalties in the third period. "We can't take that many penalties, me included." mfornabaio@ctpost.com; http://twitter.com/fornabaioctp; http://blog.connpost.com/fornabaio